Today, Russia is the only power willing to directly challenge U.S. interests in the Middle East, Europe, the Caspian Sea basin, Central Asia and now Afghanistan, where America is stuck in the longest war in its history. Put simply, the U.S.-led Western sanctions since 2014 are acting as a spur to Russia's geopolitical resurgence.

The paradox is that as India has moved strategically closer to the U.S., American policy has propelled Russia to forge closer ties with Beijing and to build new relationships with the Taliban and Pakistan.'

Russia and China have formed the China-Russia Commercial Aircraft International Co (Craic) to produce a twin-aisle airliner that is seeking to break the dominance of Airbus' A380 and the Boeing Dreamliner. This is a monumental task.'

The focus of the visit was clearly on boosting trade and economic ties with Europe. Unlike in the past when Europe used to look at India's terror problem primarily through the lens of Kashmir, there is now a greater understanding of the changing nature of the terror threat. Towards this end, India under Mr. Modi wants to present itself as a defender of the global order

'India has chosen to stay out of BRI for sovereignty reasons. But China is not alone; Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan had long crossed India's sovereignty red lines when they signed the Quadrilateral Traffic in Transit Agreement (QTTA) with Pakistan in 1995 to use the Karakoram Highway (KKH) passing through Gilgit-Baltistan as a transit corridor. It is a different matter that QTTA has not been effective for facilitating traffic, but it did nullify India's objection much before even BRI came into being. Tajikistan has recently joined the QTTA and Kazakhstan has shown interest in joining CPEC.

To raise its standing in the SCO in a more meaningful way, India should rope in one or more SCO countries, preferably Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, in its effort to project Chabahar as India's gateway to Eurasia. '

The Wahhabist strain of Islamic theology lies at the heart of the creation of the Saudi state. Based on a demand that Muslims return to the pure and austere faith practiced by Prophet Muhammad and his early companions in Medina, Wahhabist-thinking rejected practices such as consuming tobacco, wearing silk clothes, the adorning of gold jewelry by men, and dancing to music.

But how did the Wahhabist creed expand beyond the Arabian peninsula after the fall of the Ikhwan and the halt of the military advances of the clan of al Saud?

There are arguably two pivotal events which shaped the beginnings of what we now understand to be global jihadism. One concerns an anti-House of Saud insurrection in 1979, which is known as the 'Siege of Mecca'. It was led by a descendant of a prominent member of the Ikhwan. The other is the role played by Saudi Arabia as part of the anti-Soviet alliance in Afghanistan in the 1980s.'